Fury ready for final NASL fixture

Ottawa Fury FC player Carl Haworth (17) takes a shot as New York Cosmos goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer (1) tries to stop the ball during the NASL match between Fury FC and Cosmos held at TD Place on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2016.James Park / Postmedia

While Ottawa Fury FC’s immediate focus is on its final regular-season game — Saturday at TD Place against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers — plenty of thought has already been put into 2017, when the club leaves the North American Soccer League to join the United Soccer League.

Fury FC coach Paul Dalglish said “five or six players from the starting 11” are committed to return to Ottawa in 2017. Locked into a 10th-place overall finish in the 12-team NASL, Fury FC has been decimated by injuries. Results don’t tell the whole story, though.

“Nobody’s pleased that we didn’t make the post-season, but I’ve always tried to look at the positives,” said Dalglish. “This was always a rebuilding year. We hoped for better and we hoped we could rebuild and compete at the same time. We feel we’ve put foundations in place and we’re excited for next year rather than worry about what we didn’t achieve this year.

“For the younger players, (the USL is) a fantastic opportunity, for the older players, they might choose that they would rather play in the NASL or somewhere else. We don’t expect too much to change, we fully expect the players we want to be around next year will still be around.”

Joining the USL, which has ballooned from to 31 teams from 14 three seasons ago, is exciting for Dalglish, who is very familiar with the new league, having coached there with the Austin Aztex.

“It gets bigger and better every year,” said Dalglish. “It’s one of the most exciting leagues in the world to be part of with the rate it’s expanding. It’s grown and grown since I’ve been in it. I’m real excited with the direction the league’s going in and what it’s providing since the partnership with MLS. It is the league to be part of at this point in time.

“The NASL has a lot of people that come to play at the end of their careers, whereas the USL is people at the beginning of their careers. I wouldn’t say one is better or worse than the other. I would just (say) it’s different. In America, people get passionate about seeing the best young players playing against each other in college sports. I think people will be excited and will enjoy the energy and they’ll enjoy seeing players play here who might go on to be big, big national players.”

Carl Haworth is one of the players fans can expect to see back in a Fury FC uniform in 2017.

“It doesn’t change anything for me,” said the 27-year-old. “I like Ottawa, I like playing here, I like the coaching staff, I like the facilities, the fans are amazing … the league isn’t as important as those other things are to me.”

The forward said it’s business as usual on Saturday in front of the home crowd.

“We’re competitive guys, we want to win so we focus and prepare like it’s any other game,” he said.

Haworth said there’s plenty of reason for optimism pushing forward.

“We were a little unlucky with injuries early on and we weren’t able to get into our stride until later in the season,” he said. “I know the results lately haven’t been going our way, but the performances have been there. If we were able to get things going a bit earlier, maybe we’d be having a different conversation right now.

“If you just look strictly at the results, you’re not going to see it, but if you’re out here watching the games, if you’re seeing the performances that we’re putting in, the amount of chances we’re creating, the possession we have, there’s a ton of positives we can take from this season.”

Eddie Edward won’t be available for selection Saturday, as the Ottawa native defender picked up a questionable second yellow card against Tampa Bay, leading to his ejection.

The Strikers saw their late-season push for the post-season come to an end last weekend after a 2-0 defeat to Rayo OKC.

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